City Desk
- Details
- Category: City Desk
August 10, 2023 - By Mark Moran - Producer-Editor, Contact - News
Big Sky Connection - Montana is drafting a new wolf-management plan to be released for public comment at the end of the month, but residents who love wolves and don't hunt say they want a say in how the animals are being counted. Comments from Marc Cooke, executive director, Wolves of the Rockies.
Click on the image above for the audio. A new draft wolf management plan is expected to be released for public comment by the end of August, but skeptics say it is not taking the non-hunting public into account. (Adobe Stock)
Mark Moran
August 10, 2023 - The Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Department is coming up with a new wolf management plan, but there is disagreement over how the animals are being counted.
Critics contended the state is not taking the non-hunting public into account. Montana Fish and Wildlife said hunters and trappers took 248 wolves in the state last year, far below the allowed quota of 450. A higher number of wolves in Montana combined with extending the hunting season to six months has drawn criticism from people who love wolves, but who do not hunt them.
Marc Cooke, executive director of the group Wolves of the Rockies, said the state is keeping so-called "nonconsumptive" wolf supporters out of the counting process, playing to big game hunting interests instead.
"By doing this, what it's doing is, it's commercializing our wildlife," Cooke contended.
Cooke argued wolf watchers have a better understanding than hunters of how many wolves there really are. The state estimates the value of tourists coming to Montana to see wolves at $82 million a year. A draft wolf management plan is expected to be released for public comment by the end of August.
The Fish and Wildlife Department relies on hunters' surveys, estimates, pack size and territory to arrive at a wolf count, and Cooke stressed nonconsumptive Montanans, such as Wolves of the Rockies, have been kept out of the process.
"We've applied to virtually every group that the department has set up to seek guidance from the Montana community, and the department continually refuses to select us to be part of that process," Cooke explained. "They don't want us involved because the fact is we know what we're talking about."
Wolves were taken off the endangered species list in Montana and other areas of the northern Rockies in 2011, but remain protected elsewhere in the lower 48.
| Best Practices |
- Details
- Category: City Desk
The best Irish festival is happening this weekend. August 11, 12, 13. Hope to see you all there.
An Ri Ra is on the horizon, and Tom Powers was in our Thornton studio where he discussed all things Irish music festivals and more. Powers leads the Butte band Dublin Gulch and is retired from being the Clerk of District Court for Butte-Silver Bow. He’s a tall, soft-spoken man, but he still describes things with the enthusiasm of youth.
When asked about this year’s An Ri Ra lineup, he noted that all but one of the bands are making their debut at the festival, but said that some of the players have been here before.
The McLean Avenue Band returns to Butte. Powers calls it “a New York City Irish Party Band.” Powers first encountered the band during an Irish music cruise to Alaska. The band plays Celtic music with a rock style, he noted. “They’re not crazy, but you know they plug in and they play upbeat.” He said that the band was a lot of fun, and they don’t get out this way often.
Powers revealed that the other two bands that were coming had “new names but have some familiar faces.”
Reverie Road contains John Williams, Winnie Harran, Katie Grin, and Utsa Lal. Williams was here last year with the Irish All-Stars. Harran is a founding member of Solace, a band that’s played the festival, and she’s also been to Butte with Cherish the Ladies, Powers noted.
Powers said that he just stumbled upon the other new group, the Jeremiahs. The band features Joe Gibney on vocals, Niamh Varian-Barry on fiddle, viola, and vocals, Julien Bruneteau on flutes and whistles, and James Ryan on guitar, the festival website said. Varian-Barry was with Solace in Butte in 2013, Powers said.
The Jeremiah’s are not “a particularly well-known commodity on this side of the pond, but they’re very well thought of over there,” Powers said, summing up, “So lots of familiar faces, some unfamiliar group names.”
Of course, Dublin Gulch will play the festival as well. This gives the band a dual role as organizers and performers. When asked what it was like to play from the Original mine yard stage, Powers related telling a festival organizer, “Well, here’s what I see. I see a garbage can over there about to overflow. I see a kid that’s going to trip over that sandbox over there. I see a woman over there who looks like she’s going to pass out from the heat, and that’s in the middle of singing a song.”
Always a festival favorite, The Trinity Irish Dance Academy will perform at An Ri Ra as well as The Tiernan Irish Dancers.
Powers mentioned at the beginning of the interview that the event began as an adjunct to Irish language lessons by the Montana Gaelic Society in Missoula. The bands played in the street in front of what is now the Thomas Meagher Bar. “We were always involved. Dublin Gulch is the only band that has played at every Montana Irish festival.”
- Details
- Category: City Desk
Click on the image above for the audio.
PNS - Wednesday, August 9, 2023 - President Biden announces a new national monument near the Grand Canyon, a regional carbon pipeline plan faces opposition, and union members at YouTube get a favorable labor relations ruling.
- Details
- Category: City Desk
Click on the image above for the audio.
PNS - Tuesday, August 8, 2023 - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis acknowledges Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. President Joe Biden visits western states to discuss conservation and climate policies, and new polling shows fewer young people identify as Democrats.
